Boganmeldelsen beskriver hovedpersonen.

The book review describes the protagonist.

Breakdown of Boganmeldelsen beskriver hovedpersonen.

• beskrive: to describe
• hovedpersonen: the protagonist
• boganmeldelsen: the book review

Questions & Answers about Boganmeldelsen beskriver hovedpersonen.

Why is boganmeldelsen written as one word?

Because Danish, like English, often forms compound nouns, but Danish does this even more consistently.
Boganmeldelsen is built from:

• bog = book
• anmeldelse = review

So boganmeldelse means book review.

Then Danish adds the definite ending to the whole noun:

• boganmeldelse = a book review
• boganmeldelsen = the book review

So instead of writing something like book review as two words, Danish normally makes it one word: boganmeldelse.

What does the ending -en in boganmeldelsen mean?

It marks the noun as definite: the book review.

A very common feature of Danish is that the is often attached to the end of the noun instead of appearing as a separate word in front.

Compare:

• en boganmeldelse = a book review
• boganmeldelsen = the book review

This is one of the first big differences English speakers notice in Danish.

Why is there no separate word for the before boganmeldelsen?

Because Danish usually expresses definiteness with a suffix on the noun.

So where English says:

• the book review

Danish often says:

• boganmeldelsen

The ending already contains the idea of the, so you do not normally add a separate article as well.